Education as if People and Planet Matter
On a beautiful Friday morning, I was sitting for a break in my permaculture garden, looking at the yellow and white chamomiles showing their beauty in the sun and enjoying their mild scents. Who knows there used to be a pile of smelly domestic and construction wastes under these beds of attractive flowers?
Suddenly, I received a call from my husband: “Have you heard the news? Two infected cases in our province! All schools have to be closed again!”
I took this bad news with calm, as I had been trained to face unexpected events over the past terrible year, but I didn’t know the news would totally change the life of my family.
On the first day after the news, which had created a big scare on all the faces of people in our community, I asked my son for his help in my garden:
“Honey, can you help me to plant these seedlings of squash?”
“Sorry, mom! I have to study! You know I am preparing for my very important exam for entrance into university”.
“I know! And I also know that this planting will not obstruct your dreaming of a degree in Business Administration!”
“Mom, but it will kill my dream of becoming a big boss!”
“Wake up, Mr. Big Boss! You have to learn how to survive first! Over 200 thousand university graduates were unemployed in 2020, And over 100 thousand enterprises are bankrupt, you know?”
“I know, but…Maybe I will have more luck!”
I took the seedlings to the garden on my own as I had been doing this since the first virus outbreak in January 2020. The garden created from a land of waste provided most of the food needs for my family, but it was still mine, not ours!
On the second day, my 14-year-old daughter came to the garden with a pack of seeds.
“Mom, here are your seeds.”
“Thanks, my sweetie! Can you help to sow them?”
“Sorry, mom! I have an online lesson in 10 minutes! Last semester, I got the second place only; I have to take the first place in this semester.”
I continued doing my own work in my own garden.
On the third day, I took some minutes to talk to my husband before he drove to work.
“I really want our children to help me in the garden. It’s not only the sharing of the work, but I think they should start learning to survive because…you know…so many unexpected events such as Covid-19 pandemic, devastating landslides, deadly floods… have happened in the last year.”
“Honey, don’t be so worried about that! Everything will be normal soon. I spent all my childhood doing this dirty and hard work, so I don’t want our kids to do it. They will be the best students in the best classes of the best schools. They will become lawyers, doctors, or CEOs who will earn lots of money.” He drove away and left me behind with my own garden.
We were awakened early in the following morning by my daughter’s scream: “Mom! Dad! The father of my classmate got infected, and she has become F1. Unbelievable, I have become F2 overnight!”. Two drops of tears were falling down on her cheeks
In Vietnam, contact tracing and quarantine are the key parts of the Covid-19 containment. The infected person is F0. F1s are all those who have had close contact with F0. F2 are all those who have close contact with F1. The tracing is done to F5. F0 and all its F1s are quarantined in centralized facilities for at least 14 days, while F2s to F5s are required to be self-quarantined at homes for the same duration of time.
Although Vietnam had been affected by 2 waves of infection, this was the first time we felt the infection too close to us. Over one night, we became infected cases with a big wonder if we had done something wrong. Tet holiday (our Lunar New Year) was coming.
During the first week of quarantine, there was a stressful atmosphere covering my family. My husband and children kept silent all the days long. They spent their time looking at and touching their smartphones and laptops. Their sighs could be heard in the meals. Their faces looked soulless. I kept myself busy in my garden, avoiding all unnecessary talks which could turn into conflicts.
Traditionally, we went out in the eves of New Year to watch fireworks and then came back home for small sweet parties on the first days of the new year. This year, we couldn’t go out, but I still prepared a small party with chicken, fried potatoes, jams of gingers and sweet potatoes…which were available in my garden. I also decorated my house with chamomiles, violets, dahlias, and peach blossoms that I intended to plant in Tet’s garden. I said to my folks at the party: “Honey, this is our unexpected eve of New Year. But you can see we have nearly all that we need on the table. For me, your presence here, at our home, is the happiest thing I have. Wishing all the best for you and a happy new year!”
On the following morning, I was treating myself with asleep in. When I woke up, I heard some laughs from my garden. I stepped down and towards the garden. I was surprised to see my husband creating vegetable beds and the children watering the new beds. They were working and laughing. When I got close, my husband stopped and said: “Honey, traditionally I gave you some lucky money on the first day of the new year, but this year is different. We have made some new beds of vegetables in your ….no…in our garden. Do you like this present?” Not waiting for my reply, he continued: “You are right to say that this world has been changing. It will never go back to what was considered normal in the past. We have to change ourselves to adapt to this new normal.”
I was smiling with many tears in my eyes. My husband, as my unique partner in educating our children, has changed. This means that we will together develop our family garden as a school to teach my children to be self-reliant with all the responsibility and love we have.
In Vietnam, most people believe that parents are the first and the best teachers of their children. While waiting for the changing society to address our current problems, why don’t we start our home education as if we think people and the planet really matter?
Hanh Lien lives in Vietnam. She is a Lead Instructor with the International Permaculture Education Center.
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